Never Apart Forever
by longlivepat
Summary: Percy sacrifices himself to close the doors on the Tartarus side... ANGST! And I suck at summaries! A short Percabeth story.


**Hey guys! This is my first fanfic and it is a VERY ANSGSTY (at least through part of it) Percabeth fanfic.**

**Based on a photo from Instagram. That was very good. And made me want to cry. And made me write a fanfic about it.**

**Disclaimer: All rights to Rick Riordan. I don't own anything.**

**...**

**...**

**...**

**...But I really wish I did.**

**Let it begin!**

**Percy's POV**

_Annabeth..._ I couldn't hurt her like this; not in a million years. But I had to. I _can't _just let one of my friends die, when I knew that I could have helped them.

I'd ran from death enough. The time of Percy Jackson is over.

I walk through the doors. Jason and Piper are holding Annabeth back. She's trying to run from them, wailing, screaming. It was the worst scream I'd heard in my entire life. And I was causing her to hurt like this. But if I ran and caught her in my arms and spun her around and kissed her and held and never let her go, like I so wanted to do, someone would die, in the most horrible way possible.

Nico was staring at me, serious. He was whispering, so no one would overhear. "There's no going back after this. Are you sure?"

I gulp back my tears. It's hard to speak, and my voice quivers. "Yes," I say. "I have to. There's no way I'm letting any of you into Tartarus. No way I'm going to let anybody die."

"I'll remember you for this, and so will every other demigod." Nico, excruciatingly slowly, began to close the doors. Annabeth lost it even more. She was slowly getting closer, reaching and grabbing with no coordination.

"Percy!" She sobs. "Don't leave me! You promised, you would never leave me!"

_I promised her. She's had too many broken promises. I can't do this._

_But I have to. I can't live life with my doing killing someone, just to be happy. For my conscience._

I wanted to yell back at Annabeth, _I'll always love you. You'll always be with me inside. And I'll be in you_, but I couldn't. It hurt to much even thinking. Looking. Hearing.

Hazel and Frank were silently crying in each other's arms. Leo was beside them.

Annabeth was almost at the doors.

Nico continued talking. "You are the most loyal person I know, Percy. We'll always remember you."

The doors are almost closed. Annabeth was just a few feet away.

Nico finished his whispered speech to me. "Long live Percy Jackson, son of the Sea God, savior of Olympus, and the most substantial person in history."

Annabeth tripped. She reached her arm out to me, and I did the same. Our fingers were just a millimeter apart when Nico slammed the doors shut.

I pressed my back against the walls. I slid down them. I couldn't hear the other side. Piper, Hazel, Frank, Jason, Leo...

Annabeth.

They were gone. All of them.

I began to cry.

***One year later***

**Annabeth's POV**

No. I hadn't recovered yet, from losing Percy.

And I never will.

I had him to myself, for four months, and a few weeks after that. I start laughing to myself, with tears in my eyes.

_Funny_, I think. _It seemed that we were in love for a lot longer than that_.

Maybe we had. Maybe ever since we met. Maybe even before that.

But I'd never know. Because Percy was gone, gone forever.

_I love you Percy. Please, please come back,_ one part of me thinks.

The other part responds. _He won't. Never. Ever. He's dead. Percy is dead. Percy Jakson, Seaweed Brain, has been dead for a year._

I cry to myself. It happens about ten times a day.

A lot of things have happened in the past year. I spoke at Percy's funeral, his second one. I kept on looking around, praying with all my dear might that he'd pop out of nowhere like he did that time.

But he never did.

I moved away from Camp Half-Blood, after I turned eighteen. I designed and furnished an apartment in New York. It kept me busy for a month or so.

I took all of Percy's belongings - most of them, anyway - and brought them with me. I had a huge room filled with his stuff. When I really, really need to - so a few times a day - I go in there and look at the pictures, and breathe in his scent. But the scent has been fading the past little while, and I can barely smell it. I'm starting to forget what it's like.

And one day, I won't remember at all.

***A few days later***

I was walking down a busy street, when I passed a TV Shop with televisions playing the news in sync.

Right as I was walking past it, my peripheral vision picked something up.

A pale person, with jet black hair, some faded orange...

Was Nico on TV?

But by the time I turned around, the news station had changed to another story.

I remembered the channel, and rushed home.

Was Nico in trouble? Because the glimpse kind of looked like Nico, in a way, except for the orange t-shirt part.

It had to be a demigod, because no one else wore baggy orange t-shirts in September.

When I got home, I started up my computer from Daedalus. My foot tapped quickly. _Faster, faster..._ I opened the page of the news station.

And there was the headline: **_Citizen found in sewer pipe, critical condition._**

And then there was the picture.

Percy.

_Percy._

It was Seaweed Brain, and he was alive.

I called up a taxi and told the driver to go the hospital Percy was in, since I had quickly scanned over the article. A lady had been just strolling across the street when she heard a loud scream form a street drain. She called the police and they found Percy's body in the sewage pipe, bringing him to a nearby hospital. He'd been found a few hours ago, and was barely breathing or alive, in general.

No one knew who he was. But I did.

It was my boyfriend. My boyfriend, who I was _not_ going to let die at this stage.

I called everyone from Camp Half-Blood whose phone number I knew. "Get to the hospital. _Now_. I'll meet you there." I mass texted them all too.

At the front desk, a plump lady asked me what I'd like.

"I heard you had patient who was found in a sewer pipe? I know him,he's my boyfriend, I _have to see him now._"

The desk lady looked bored. "Sorry dear, but there's no way to prove if this person is your... 'boyfriend.' The hospital is not allowing anyone in except for staff until his identity is confirmed."

But... but that could take weeks!

So I decided to do things the sneaky way.

"I have to go to the bathroom," I said. "I have a lot of friends coming, so just tell them I'm in the bathroom. And there's one named Malcolm, ask for him please, and tell him: #266."

The desk lady smiled in a way that said, _Finally, she's leaving_. "Will do, dear."

In the bathroom, I snuck out a minute later and walked through one of the doors. I guess it was visiting hour, so yay.

I had to think... where would Percy be? _Emerg, dummy_, I thought. It had me so wired, I couldn't think.

Emerg is on the first floor. Thank goodness. And even better, thank goodness I had my Yankees Cap. I put it on and run to the ER. I look through every window, and then...

And then I see him.

Asleep - unconscious. He is cut and bruised all over. He's so pale, it's like and _empousai_. He looked so sickly, it was hard to believe he was alive.

But Percy was, and there was a door between us, that I had to take away. So very quickly and quietly, when no one was looking, I snuck in to Percy's room.

I saw his heartbeat. Tiny, but as I got closer, it seemed to speed up.

I took my Yankees cap off, and slid into the chair next to him.

I took his hand. I expected it to be warm, like it used to be, but it was cold.

"Percy..." I said. "I don't know what to say. I know you can't hear me, but... what happened?I can't live without you. Life was a living hell without you. It killed me. Don't you ever leave me again." I was crying, now. Last time I told him not to ever leave me again, I had the strength to be angry. I didn't, this time. I could just feel sad.

I took some emergency ambrosia and nectar from my purse and started feeding it to him. His eyes rolled in the back of his head and his eyebrows got scrunched together a bit.

_He looks so cute when his eyebrows get scrunched together._

I kissed the top of his forehead.

Come back to me, Percy. Come back, come back. I'm here now."

I gave him a hug, and he sighed. After I pulled away, I waited for a few minutes. I heard some clanking from the ceiling. #266 - _through the air vents_, Athena problem solving manual. They were coming. At least the light ones, anyway.

Percy started to come to.

"Percy," I sighed. "I love, I love you, I love you, you are never leaving my again."

"Annabeth," his voice was so hoarse and dry, it was hard to understand him. "Ambrosia... nectar..."

I fed more to him, as much as I dared.

"Annabeth," he said again. He looked a lot better. Percy smiled.

And then we kissed, the first time in a year.

When we pulled apart, a few seconds later, it was because he'd passed out again.

I looked at him for a little bit. He was going to survive. I don't know how, but he came back. Nothing can keep us apart, I knew at that moment. He started drooling, and I chuckled, then started to laugh.

"You drool when you sleep," I said.

***Epilogue***

I gave Percy time to recover until he told me what happened. By that I mean 24 hours. He's getiing et out of the hospital tomorrow morning. It took a lot of explaining. But Percy said that after a few hours in Tartarus, he couldn't stand it anymore. It was a worse pain than you could even imagine. I knew he was sincere. The worst pain ever. Worse than what I had had.

He'd tried to climb his way out, and he said, he knew he wasn't going do it. Not even a giant could have done it! But he had to do something.

After a few hours, he fell. And he told me, and it made my heart stop, that he died, right then and there.

His soul went to the Underworld, and Hades sent him to Elysium. After a few months in the Underworld, a soul came up to him. It was a son of Poseidon, from back in Ancient Greek times. He was never recognized, no one knew him, he couldn't even remember his own name. But by sacrificing himself to save the one he loved, he got into Elysium.

"I don't deserve to be here," he said. "Asphodel. I should be in the Fields of Asphodel."

But the gods had thought he deserved Elysium.

"There... there is... there is an ancient spell..."

"What?" Percy asked.

"Only a few... of ancient people... know of it... and Hades... he... hates it..."

"_What?!_" Percy was annoyed at the ghost.

"I could use it... It would bring you back... to life... but it would... erase my soul... forever..."

Percy stared at the soul. It was small and had wisps of hair on its head. It kind of reminded of him of Dobby from _Harry Potter_. (He'd never read the books, but since Annabeth loved the series so much, they'd had a movie day together and watched every one.)

"I don't realy mind, really." The ghost suddenly seemed nervous. "I don't have much of an existence anyway, and you're... well... everyone knows who you are, brother."

So the soul sacrificed itself. Percy watched it, as it muttered a few words in Ancient Greek - words not even he knew - and it just... _disappeared_. Then Percy felt a thumping in his chest, and a movement going in and out of his throat...

_My heart's beating again. I'm breathing too._

He fell asleep. The soul forgot to mention that, the spell causes you to be unconscious for a few months.

"I was transported from the Underworld, I guess. I don't know how. But I ended up in that sewer."

"Hades is going to hate me even more now, if that's possible. He'll try to get me to come back. But I'm not going to let him kill me. Things are going to be rough, for a bit, Wise Girl..." He started to caress my hand. "And I'm not sure how it's going to end, but I do know one thing-"

I finish his sentence. "We'll always be together."

We kissed.

**Sooooo... Whaddid ya think? Sorry that Percy came back so quickly, but writing this gave me SO many feels that I had to bring him back, ASAP. Rate & Review ;)**


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